~ All the beautiful things the Lord is teaching me

Monthly Archives: July 2016

So I don’t know where everyone else is at or what the Lord has planned for you. I don’t know what he’s laid on your heart or what you are passionate about. What I do know is where I am at and what the Lord has laid on my heart. And I’m hoping that it can encourage you.

Maybe it’s your time and everything has happened for the moment that is going on right now for you. Maybe you were created for such a time as this. Maybe it’s time for you to open your mouth and speak out. Maybe it’s time for you to take that leap of faith and stop saying why me. Maybe he called you because you are humble and you are willing. Maybe he wants you because you know you are only strong with him. Maybe he’s ready to blow your mind and show up in a way that you never expected. Maybe he wants to use you in a mighty way.

What’s keeping you from seeing that you were created for such a time as this? Yes maybe you feel as though you’ve been stuck and waiting for what may feel like forever. That’s how I’ve felt. I’ve gone through all the whys and how much longer. But read the story of Esther. She was prepared for a year before she met the king and she helped to save her people from death.

Maybe he’s been preparing you and growing you. Maybe he’s been teaching you and making you so dependent on him for something so much bigger than you ever imagined for yourself. Maybe he’s raised you up for such a time as this!

Will you say yes? Will you go where he has called you? Will you love those he surrounds you with? Will you spread his love? Will you speak up?

I feel compelled to write a post about everything that has been in the news. I wanted to post a video but honestly I don’t know that I could keep it together. My heart physically hurts for the pains that occurring, the deaths that are occurring. We cannot deny that there is racism in this country. There is clearly something not right with the justice system in this country. People are not treated equally. And my friends, some people are in denial about it.

You should not have to be scared of the police. You should not have fear for your safety or assume that the worst is going to happen. Moms should not be terrified for their sons to grow up in this country. You should not have to fear these things just because of the color of your skin.

As a white female I do not have to have these fears. But I have these fears for my friends, my church family, for the man that I love. White friends, we cannot stand by and not say anything. We can’t go about our lives anymore and pretend as if it is not happening. We need to support the black community. We need to stand by them and mourn with them. We cannot claim ignorance any longer. We need to seek to actually change things. We need to work together.

My heart breaks so badly. I just pray and pray. I can’t sleep as I know that people are in fear for their safety. We cannot keep allowing black men to be treated differently based on stereotyping and assumptions. No I was not there when any of the instances occurred but when clearly this many people see that there is something wrong with what is going on…there is something wrong with what is going on.

So as I have seen many other white people do, (I hope to see more), I am sorry for the pain and hurts and the way that you are being treated. It’s not fair and it’s not right. My heart hurts so badly for you. Please know that I want justice and that I support you. I want to do my part to help rectify this. Please know that there are white people who see and are woke and want to do more and what to understand. We want to talk and we want to help. Please now that I am so sorry that we are not further along with this. Please know I love you and I mourn with you.

I no longer want to be on the sidelines. As Christians, specifically white Christians, we should not be on the sidelines. We should be uniting together. Where is the love for your fellow man and brother? We should be praying with and for one another. We should be looking to help bridge this gap and look to love on and mourn with those who are hurting.

We should not be dividing. The Tweets and Facebook posts against those who are speaking out, has got to stop. This is the time when we should be uniting together and encouraging one another. It’s time to speak up. What an opportunity we have in this moment to do better and be better. Show the black community that they are not alone in this fight, that they have others on their side. America, Christians, give me a reason to believe and hope in us. This is too much and too important. Please consider what you can do to help change this country around and be better than it’s ever been, where everyone is truly equal and free.

I am not going to be the first and I won’t be the last to realize the irony in July 4th in America. In America, we recognize July 4th, as the day we got independence. This was the day that men signed the Declaration of Independence, separating us from our mother country of Britain. It sounds nice and pretty. It’s how the history book portray it. They make it sound so simple. People came here to escape religious persecution.

The truth is, it’s not really that simple. I’ve been taking a class in grad school about Christianity in America. I had thought about history before and about Christianity. I actually really love history. However, this class has caused me to have mixed feelings about our past. It has caused me to be angry and what people have stated and stood for under the guise of Christianity.

When we sought our independence, the majority of people who were in this country were not free. We forced them to come over here, against their will. But the men who ran the country didn’t even see them as people. They saw them as property and treated them worse than property. How can we celebrate that? I cannot wrap my brain around how we can look at fellow humans as anything less than human and claim that it was the Christian thing to do or say that they were doing it under some paternal guise. It literally makes me sick to my stomach.

Not only that, we wiped out the Native Americans who had been living here prior to our settling here. We drove those we didn’t kill west and told them where they could live and what they could do.

So this 4th of July, I thought about where our country came from and where our country is at now. I thought about how wrong we were to think that we were some how better and that there was a divine providence for the WASP. I thought about how men like Billy Graham and other white ministers told men like Martin Luther King Jr. to pull the reigns back and that they were causing too much a of disturbance when it came to fighting for civil rights and justice.

I know this seems cynical but it’s the truth about where we came from. This is the not so pretty side of history. The parts that we gloss over in history class. The parts that we don’t want to admit or talk about. But the thing is it happened and we can’t ignore that part of our past. Because remember history repeats itself.

I admit, I am what one would consider a typical white girl. I grew up in the suburbs of America. We were your typical family and my parents are still together over 25 years later. I didn’t experience judgement based on my skin color or get looked down as inferior. People haven’t assumed that I am guilty of committing crimes that I didn’t. If you look at me, you would imagine that I have a perfect life and in many ways I do. I am grateful for what I have been given.

But I’m not oblivious to where our country came from. I’m not naive anymore and not blind to how our country was founded. I cannot claim ignorance or agree with those who say that people back then just didn’t know. If other people knew that slavery was wrong back then and said something about it, how could people claim that they didn’t know?

I am grateful to have been born in this country and thankful for the freedoms that I do have. I know that there are many who do not have the same ones that I do. I know that I am free to type this blog. I know that I am free to worship the Lord how I want to. I know that I am free to do a lot of things in this country. But I know that a lot of people aren’t free. I know that there is still a lot of work that needs to happen in this country. I know that we need to keep fighting for justice and freedom. I know that we need to keep fighting for what is right and keep speaking out about injustice. I pray that we stand up for what is right and do not sit ideally by. I pray that we have the strength and holy boldness to stand by one another.

Isn’t that part of the beauty of America? Isn’t part of the beauty that we are free to stand up for what we believe in? That we can see the truth about things, that we don’t have to claim ignorance, that we can think for ourselves. I just know that we still have a ways to go to all really be free.

Just take a minute and really think about July 4th, freedom, and America. What does it all really mean?